February Monthly Recap

Image credit: Chibird

What I've been up to.

Jasprit: 

Hi everyone, sorry about the radio silence as of late, I just don't know where this last month has gone, I've either been super busy or sick, my immune system has just been so weak, that I tend to be catching everything and then don't have the time to rest either. But February has an eventful month nonetheless. 

 

I got to spend a weekend with one of my best friends Allie, with our busy schedules we of course have to plan way in advance, we managed to find a new show to binge watch and of course went on our usual food crawl, usually we're able to hit a lot of places, but this time around we did get to try out some great food, but were tired so quick! 

What I've been watching 

Allie had been telling me about this show and we ended up starting it on the weekend it was added to Netflix, let me just say I was addicted! I needed something refreshing and different and this was exactly it. 

Reading 

I managed to read six books this month, and they were really a mixed bunch, I sadly only had one book which stood out for me and surprisingly it was the anthology below. Seriously it was super cute and one book I will definitely be highly recommending. 

(Click on title for Goodreads link)

What I plan to read

I hope March will be a better reading month, I started On The Come Up by Angie Thomas, which despite not being able to read as much as I want to, I'm really enjoying. I also have a buddy read planned with Nick, we're reading Meg Cabot's newest book Bridal Boot Camp, which I'm super excited about. And below are a few other books I plan to read in March. 

(Click on title for Goodreads link)

I'm also planning to watch Captain Marvel this week, for my sister's birthday, to be honest this film wasn't on my radar, (I've been eagerly anticipating Avengers Endgame and X-Men: Dark Phoenix), but everyone seems to have watched this over the weekend, so I'm really looking forward to it now. 

I hope you all have a great upcoming month!  

Monthly Recap: November

Hi everyone, I'm so glad its finally December, we have our Christmas tree up and I only have a few more Christmas presents to shop for and I just have two weeks of work left and then the Christmas break to look forward to. I've really been feeling the workload lately, I've actually eased back from the gym too and taken a fitbit break. But with Christmas around the corner, I can imagine things getting busy again. Christmas is probably one of the holidays where our family goes all out, we probably do more baking than we do at Vaisakhi or Diwali, so if you don't hear from me around Christmas it'll most likely be because I'm in a food coma!

What I've been up to.

Jasprit:

November was my birthday month, so of course it involved lots of eating with family and friends, I got some great gifts from Allie and Rashika, <3 these ladies and giftcards so I can buy more books!

(You can see more of my photos on my Instagram profile here)

Allie and I went on another food binge, I was all prepared for all the food, well I thought I was prepared, I did quite well at the first few places, but then when we hit the Mae Deli I was a goner! I also had the best hot chocolate at Sourced Market, it was a Dark Rich flavour by Hans Sloane, I'm not typically a dark chocolate fan, but this one was my absolute favourite! And London was of course looking super pretty with the Christmas decorations out in full force! 

I also got to meet up with the lovely Keertana, we both started blogging around the same time, and it feels like we've been great friends ever since, so I was so excited about meeting her in real life. We went and ate at a Michelin star restaurant, visited a few bookstores and ended the day at Laduree with Chocolate Chaud (hot chocolate) and dessert. 

 

Reading

Jasprit:

Number of books read: 20! I haven't read this many books since January and now I'm only 9 books from meeting my goal.

Best read of last month: 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 

  

I read four 5 star reads last month, and I honestly can't choose between them and they all affected me differently on an emotional level. The Opportunist and Thief just crushed my poor little heart, but the romance was done so well! November 9 I actually ended up reading on November 9 (what are the chances), my train was delayed on my way back from meeting Allie, so I got through quite a chunk of it, and normally books by Hoover don't work for me, but I ended up loving the heck out of this one. And Kulti, my gosh this had such wickedly slow burn romance and the main love interest definitely made it to my top ten fictional crushes of all time. 

Fictional crush of the month: Don't make me choose! This has to be such a close call between Caleb from Tarryn Fisher's Love Me with Lies series and Reiner Kulti from Kulti (I'm a complete sucker for a German, hence I'm holding Kulti in such high regards!). But Caleb seriously despite some of the messed up things that he did and had to go through, his love for Olivia was one of the best ones. I need a Caleb in my life! 

 Books I'm looking forward to reading next month. 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 


Jasprit:

I got the first three books in the Beautiful Bastard series for a really good deal this week, the reviews have been a mixed for the first book, but I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it. I also received my first book for Christmas The Hating Game! I wanted to buy this book ages ago, but held back for as long as possible, but I can't wait to get stuck in. 

How was your November?

Monthly Recap: October

Hi everyone, where has the month gone by, I can't believe it's November already, I think because the weather really hasn't changed over here, (I haven't even been using my scarf or gloves yet!) that it doesn't feel like Winter is around the corner, Winter is my favourite season by the way, with Christmas my favourite holiday. Can you believe they've already put up the Christmas decorations in my town centre? And Starbucks and Costa have started their Christmas drinks this week too! What is going on? 

What I've been up to.

Jasprit:

Work has been killing my butt big time lately, that all I want to do is sleep when I get home, but I've persevered and renewed my membership at the gym and been going back to my circuits class, the first one literally killed me, but I'm slowly getting back to it. I've also slowly started getting back to eating healthy, the Sourced Boxes have been keeping me going. But I've tried getting up earlier so I can meal prep too. Smoothie bowls and cookies have been my go to as of late (You can see all the photos of my healthy food on my Instagram here.)

What I've been watching. 

Jasprit:

I haven't been able to catch up with my TV shows at all this month, everytime I intend to I'm either too tired or distracted my something else, I need to play catch up this month for sure! But I have been watching all the films with my younger sister, we watched Beauty & the Beast, Princess and the Frog and Megamind. Megamind was definitely one of my favourites! 

Reading

Jasprit:

Number of books read: 12! The last time I read this many books was all the way back in February! And I've still been continuing with my audiobook reads too, with me finishing 4 this month! 

Best read of last month: 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 

  

I listened to The Deal on audio and honestly with the mood I've been in lately its exactly what I needed, the sexual chemistry between our characters was off the charts! I think Garrett is definitely one of my top fictional crushes! 

Three Books I'm looking forward to reading next month. 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 


Jasprit:

These are three books that I've been highly anticipating for sometime now, retellings haven't really been my thing the last couple of times that I picked them up, but my sister recently read my copy of Hunted and absolutely loved it and Meyer hasn't let me down with her books so far, so of course I can't wait any longer before diving right in. And I adore all of Cotugno's books I've read in the past and so if anyone is going to get my back into reading contemporary YA I'm sure this will be the book!

I'm already so excited about November, there will be another Jas and Allie Adventures! I've actually been prepping for this, as I always seem to be the one that can never finish her food off, this time it hopefully won't be the case! I also get to meet the lovely Keertana, I'm so excited for this, as Keertana was one of my earliest friends when I first started blogging and I can't wait to finally meet her in real life! And November is my birthday month, I have a few reunions and catch ups with friends to look forward, so an exciting month nonetheless! I hope you all have a wonderful month! 

Monthly Recap: September

Hi all! It feels like ages since Rachel and I have shared a monthly recap post with you, we've been trying to keep on top of our fitness, manage work and fit in all the glorious books too! Hopefully we'll be sharing a lot more posts with you guys too!

What we've been up to.

Jasprit:

Allie and I had another one of our adventures, of course it involved lots of traipsing around London, food hopping and we even had a fantastic sleepover! I was of course in a food coma all day, but that didn't stop me from eating at Shake Shack and Laduree! Why did no one tell me these places existed just at Convent Garden! 

I'm so grateful to have become friends with Allie, we can be our usual jokey selves around each other and just make our days to be totally memorable ones! We're already planning our next trip together, hopefully around Christmas time. 

I went to a high tea/baby shower with my friends, the food was absolutely incredible! We were treated with beautiful sandwiches, pastries, macaroons, scones and heavenly orange and nutella hot chocolates! We even made our friend a pretty little hamper, can't wait until the little one arrives later this month!

I have a new Instagram! You can now find me on _liveboldly, I love seeing all the book challenges around and have been meaning to post more book posts, so thought that I would make my jas_kaur14 instagram more personal and keep my _liveboldly for my bookish and food photos! So if you've seen a _liveboldly liking all your photos and thinking who the heck is this person, its just me!!

Rachel:

I've had a busy summer. I went on vacation a few places: Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia.  Had tea at the Empress Fairmont in Victoria, lovely! Then I did some more local getaways like Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach out here in California.  

Empress Fairmont Tea, Victoria BC

 Hatley Castle, Victoria, BC

Santa Barbara, California


I've also been training for a 1/2 Marathon (13.1 miles) for the last 2 months.  I run next Sunday and I'm a little nervous because I haven't been able to train for the last week because of getting sick. I've had the cough from hell, but I managed to run 6 miles this morning. I guess we'll see how it goes next Sunday!

What we've been watching. 

Jasprit:

I remember Keertana in a post telling us that she loved watching Jane the Virgin and when I stayed over at Allie's we thought we'd give it a go and honestly it's become one of my all time favourite shows! Allie and I binge watched Season 1 in four days, it was that addictive and now we're just loyally waiting for Netflix to get Season 2 already! 

Rachel:

I've been watching The Wine Show with Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys and Joe Fattorini where they taste wines all over the globe. The wineries and scenery is beautiful! It's quite a fun show, too!

Music we've been listening to.

Jasprit:

Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna This is What You Came For.

I've always been a huge fan of Calvin Harris, so this collaboration with Rihanna is one song I could never tire of, I've been listening to it on repeat for the last few weeks now!

DJ Snake ft. Justin Bieber Let Me Love You.

Yep its Justin Bieber again, this guy in my eyes can't be stopped giving us hit after hit!



Reading

Jasprit:

Number of books read: 5 and two of these were Audiobooks! I'm becoming quite the audiobook listener as of late! 

Best read of last month: 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 

  

I'm going to have to choose two as Lauren's Layne's To Have and to Hold was a fantastic read, I loved being with this wonderful set of characters and the romance was everything that I like it to be! And then I loved Empire of Storms on Audio, it was 25 hours long, but exceptionally done well, especially as I wasn't even considering going back to this series after the last book. 

Rachel:

 (click on cover for Goodreads link)
 

Number of books read: 14 books, 5 were audiobooks. I'll just show my favorites:

Best read of last month:

Three Books I'm looking forward to reading next month. 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 


Jasprit:

I've been seriously having so much fun with Layne's Wedding Belles series, I can't wait to be back with these characters once more in To Love and to Cherish. I actually got my copy of The Deal on audio this week, I had been hearing great things about this series and finally decided to give it a go, I started it yesterday and I'm enjoying it so far. My copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child finally came through in my library, the two month waiting time was agonisingly long, but I can'r wait to get stuck in! 

Rachel: 
(click on cover for Goodreads link)

   

I'm looking forward to all of these. The Hating Game seems like a fun romance. Hunted is a Beauty and the Beast re-telling, can't wait! Repressed sounds exactly like the kind of romantic suspense/mystery I love! 

I hope you've all had a great September too, and here's to a fantastic October filled with cosy blankets, warm drinks and wonderful reads!